System and method of storing backup image catalog

ABSTRACT

A system and method for managing backup and restore operations associated with a backup system. Metadata associated with files/directories of one or more file systems associated with one or more resources may be received. A virtual catalog image associated with the metadata may be created in a virtual file system image format. Once the virtual catalog image is created, virtualization vendor specific technology may be utilized to mount the image on the backup system and search and browse operations may be performed. The virtual catalog image may contain the file/directory hierarchy without containing actual file data.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of backup and recovery systems. Moreparticularly, the invention relates to creating, storing, and utilizingvirtual images of a catalog for backup and recovery.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Typically, a file server may contain a number of items, for example,files, directories, and/or other items associated with a file systemand/or metadata associated with the items. When backing up the fileserver, a backup application may create a backup image that includes abackup of the items (i.e., backup of actual file data, etc.) onto atape, disc, cloud, etc. The backup application may store the metadataassociated with the items in a separate catalog file and/or in adatabase. This catalog file may then be utilized to perform searchoperations for particular files and directories without requiring a scanof the entire backup image. Based on the approach followed to store themetadata, the search capabilities may depend on the underlying databasemanagement system (for example, in the case where the metadata is storedin a database), or homegrown indexing capabilities of the underlyingcatalog file (for example, in the case where the metadata is stored in acatalog file). Both of these approaches may have limitations on filename length and path name length that they can support.

As the file server is periodically backed up, over time, a large amountof metadata records may be created and stored. Search performance of thedatabase may degrade over time because a search through these recordsmay need to be performed to, for example, restore a particular file.

Also, for backup systems in an enterprise that are configured to backupdata associated with a number of machines associated with a number ofusers, it is important to ensure that a backup application allows aparticular user to restore only files that he/she has access too.Typically, a backup application has to build its own security measuresto restrict users from viewing files that are not owned by them.

Some backup applications may store the entire backup image in a virtualfile system image format, for example, VMDK (virtual machine diskformat) format supported by VMWare™, VHD (virtual hard disk) formatsupported by Microsoft®, and/or other virtual image formats, so that thewhole image may be mounted for searching, browsing, and recoverypurposes. The drawback of this approach, however, is that it requires alarge amount of storage space because complete backup image copies mustbe stored at all recovery points in order to provide catalogs for theserecovery points.

These and other drawbacks exist.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In some implementations, the invention relates to a system and methodfor managing backup and restore operations associated with a backupsystem. A backup system may comprise, among other things, at least onebackup server that is configured to backup one or more items associatedwith one or more file systems. The one or more file systems may beassociated with one or more managed resources that are to be backed up.The one or more managed resources may comprise computers, desktops,workstations, servers, file servers, and/or other hardware resourcesemployed by one or more users in an enterprise.

The backup server may receive one or more records including actual dataassociated with one or more items, for example, files, directories,and/or other items, associated with a file system, and metadataassociated with the items. The metadata may include, but not be limitedto, names of files/directories, file/directory hierarchy, location ofthe files/directories in the backup image (for example, in terms of tapeidentifiers, tape location, location of files/directories in the tape,etc.), last modified date, last access date, creation date, user whocreated file/directory, owner of item, access permissions (read, write,etc.) associated with the items, users, and/or user groups, for example,in terms of access control lists and/or other security streams.

In some implementations, an image creating module may create a backupimage of the actual data associated with the items. The image creatingmodule may also create a catalog file associated with the receivedmetadata records in a virtual file system image format. This createdcatalog file may be referred to as a virtual catalog image and maycomprise a complete image of the file system encapsulated into a singlefile that is in the virtual file system image format. Therefore, thevirtual catalog image may contain, for example, directory and filehierarchy information without containing the actual data associated withthe items. As such, the virtual catalog image may include informationabout the location of a file or directory in the backup image. In someimplementations, the virtual file system image format may be a VMDK(virtual machine disk format) format supported by VMWare™, a VHD(virtual hard disk) format supported by Microsoft™, and/or any othervirtual image format supported by a given virtualization vendor withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure.

An image storing module may store the created backup image onto a tape,disk, cloud, or other medium. The image storing module may also storethe virtual catalog image as a separate file in the backup server or ina database. In some implementations, the virtual catalog image may bestored in a tape, disk, cloud, or other medium.

In some implementations, a restoring/searching module may receive arestore/search request for a particular file(s). The restore/searchrequest may include one or more search parameters, for example, one ormore file/directory names/identifiers of files/directories to berestored/searched, user name/identifier associated with a user whocreated the request and/or a user whose file(s) are to berestored/searched, resource identifier, access permissions/securityinformation, and/or other parameters. Based on the request,restoring/searching module may mount a virtual catalog image associatedwith a particular resource identified in the request using appropriatevendor specific technology. For example, if the virtual catalog image isin VMDK format, appropriate VMware tools may be used to mount thevirtual catalog image on the backup server and use native file systemsearch capabilities, and so on.

in some implementations, when the virtual catalog image is mounted onthe backup server, the file system including the file/directoryhierarchy associated with the particular resource can be accessed on thebackup server. Various operations, for example, accessing, searching,restoring, and/or other operations may be performed based on and/or bythe underlying file system. Because the virtual catalog image is acomplete file system image, the file system may perform searchoperations for a particular file/directory identified in for example,the restore request. The underlying file system may also control auser's access to the file system based on the access permissionscontained in the mounted catalog image.

In some implementations, the mounted virtual catalog image may besearched to identify the particular file in the file system orfile/directory hierarchy. In some implementations, once the file isidentified in the directory hierarchy, location of the identified filein the backup image of the items associated with the particular resourceis determined. The mounted virtual catalog image may contain thislocation information. For example, the mounted virtual catalog image mayinclude a tape identifier of the tape containing the backup image, alocation of the tape containing the backup image, and location of theidentified file in the tape. The identified file may be restored fromthe determined location in the backup image.

Various other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will beapparent through the detailed description and the drawings attachedhereto. It is also to be understood that both the foregoing generaldescription and the following detailed description are exemplary and notrestrictive of the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example backup system, according tovarious aspects of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting example operations performed by a backupsystem, according to various aspects of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is an exemplary illustration of a backup system 100, according tovarious aspects of the invention. Backup system 100 may include, amongother things, at least one backup server 130 that is configured tobackup one or more items associated with one or more file systems. Theone or more file systems may be associated with one or more managedresources 110 a-110 n that are to be backed up. The one or more managedresources 110 a-110 n may comprise computers, desktops, workstations,servers, file servers, and/or other hardware resources employed by oneor more users in an enterprise. The backup server 130 may include one ormore processors (e.g., a processor 132), circuitry, and/or otherhardware operable to execute computer-readable instructions. Accordingto one aspect of the invention, the backup system 100 may include one ormore tangible computer-readable storage media configured to store one ormore software modules, wherein the software modules includecomputer-readable instructions that when executed by one or moreprocessors cause the processors to perform the functions describedherein. According to one implementation, the backup server 130 maycomprise computer hardware programmed with a backup computer application134 having one or more software modules that enable the various featuresand functions of the invention. Non-limiting examples of the softwaremodules in the application may include one or more of an image creatingmodule 134 a, an image storing module 134 b, a restoring/searchingmodule 134 c, and/or other modules 134 d for performing the features andfunctions described herein.

Backup server 130 may receive one or more records from managed resources110 a-110 n, including actual data associated with one or more items(e.g., files, directories, and/or other items, associated with a filesystem) and metadata associated with the items. The metadata mayinclude, for example, names of files/directories, file/directoryhierarchy, location of the files/directories in the backup image, lastmodified date, last access date, creation date, user who createdfile/directory, owner of item, resource identifier, access permissions(read, write, etc.) associated with the items, users, and/or usergroups, for example, in terms of access control lists and/or othersecurity streams. Backup server 130 may periodically connect to themanaged resources (at a predetermined backup time, for example) torequest and/or receive the records for a backup procedure.

In some implementations, managed resources 110 a-110 n may run backupagents 112 a-112 n that gather the appropriate actual data and metadatainformation and send the gathered data to backup server 130 asrequested. The metadata that is gathered may depend on the type of filesystem associated with the managed resources. While FIG. 1 depictsbackup agents running on the resources 110 a-110 n, one of ordinaryskill in the art would recognize that backup agents/tools may be run onthe backup server, and in some cases be run in a distributed fashion onthe resources and the backup server.

Administrators (or other users) may interact with backup server 130 viaone or more client devices 150 a-150 n. Client devices 150 a-150 n mayeach include a user interface module (not shown) that may enable usersto perform various operations that facilitate interaction with backupserver 130 including, for example, configuring backup of data from themanaged resources 110 a-110 n associated with one or more users, settingbackup policies, providing restore/search requests for one or more itemsassociated with one or more file systems, configuring mounting options,receiving requested information associated with items, and/or performingother operations. Client devices 150 a-150 n may include a processor(not shown), circuitry, and/or other hardware operable to executecomputer-readable instructions. Backup policies may include policiesregarding periodicity of backup (e.g., monthly, weekly, etc.), virtualfile system image formats to be utilized for creating virtual catalogimages for each managed resource, and/or other policies.

In some implementations, an image creating module 134 a may receiverecords including actual data associated with one or more items to bebacked up and metadata associated with the items. Image creating module134 a may create a backup image of the actual data associated with theitems. The image creating module 134 a may also create a catalog fileassociated with the received metadata records in a virtual file systemimage format. This created catalog file may be referred to as a virtualcatalog image and may include a complete image of the file systemencapsulated into a single file in virtual file system image format.Therefore, the virtual catalog image may contain, for example, directoryand file hierarchy information without containing the actual dataassociated with the items to be backed up. As such, the virtual catalogimage may include information about the location of a file or directoryin the backup image of the actual data. In some implementations, thevirtual file system image format may be a VMDK (virtual machine diskformat) format supported by VMWare™, a VHD (virtual hard disk) formatsupported by Microsoft™, or may be in any other virtual image formatsupported by a given virtualization platform vendor without departingfrom the scope of this disclosure.

In some implementations, backup policies may indicate virtual filesystem image formats to be utilized for creating catalog images for eachmanaged resource. For example, a backup policy may indicate that a VMDKformat is to be utilized for creating catalog images for resource 110 a,and so on. Image creating module 134 a may accordingly create thevirtual catalog image in a particular virtual file system image formatbased on the backup policies.

In some implementations, image creating module 134 a may utilize one ormore published application programming interfaces (APIs) of a givenvirtualization platform vendor, for example, VMWare™, Microsoft™, and/orother vendor, to create the virtual catalog image by utilizing knowledgeabout a given file system layout. For example, if the resource to bebacked up is a NTFS (i.e., Windows NT™ file system) volume, imagecreating module 134 a may use an API provided by the virtualizationplatform vendor to create an image catalog file in NTFS format.Accordingly, if the resource to be backed up is a FAT/EXT2 volume, thenthe image catalog file will be created in FAT/EXT2 format, and so on.

In some implementations, a virtual machine may be provided for each kindof operating system that the backup application 134 supports. Thevirtual machine may be provided on a separate server (e.g., a virtualmachine hosting server—not shown), for example, VMware™ ESX server,Microsoft™ Hyper-V server, and/or other server. In some implementations,the virtual machine may have a catalog agent running therein. Imagecreating module 134 a may send metadata records of items to be backed upto the catalog agent that stores the records in separate volumes usingregular file system input/output (I/O) functions. This operation can bedone either as part of the backup window or outside the backup window.For example, a backup server or other storage device may initially cachethe metadata records in a temporary location during a backup procedureand send these metadata records to the catalog agent at the end of thebackup procedure. In this manner, much of network bandwidth and otherresources will be available to finish the backup procedure during abackup window. Because the catalog agent is running inside the virtualmachine, it uses the metadata records to create a directory hierarchyusing native file system “create directory” and “create file”interfaces. Any other metadata (e.g., the location of a file/directoryon the backup image) may be stored as part of the data or extendedattributes of the file/directory. This directory hierarchy created inthe guest operating system automatically translates into a singlevirtual image file on the host operating system. This method will notrequire knowledge of the underlying file system's layout on the disk.These catalog files further can be transferred to the backup server forstorage (e.g., on tape, disk, cloud, etc.). If possible, the backupserver may mount these virtual image catalogs to perform search requestssimilar to implementation explained herein. If it cannot, then thebackup server again relied on the catalog agent running inside thevirtual machine of a given operating system to fulfill those requests.For example, if the backup server is a Windows™ server, it can mount thevirtual image catalog files relating to Windows™ file systems. Imagecreating module 134 a may receive the created virtual catalog image fromthe catalog agent.

An image storing module 134 b may store the created backup image ontoone or more tapes, disks, cloud, and/or other media 140. The imagestoring module 134 b may store the virtual catalog images associatedwith managed resources 110 a-110 n as separate files 150 in backupserver 130, in a database 145, and/or to tape/disk/cloud or otherstorage area. According to one aspect of the invention, backup server130 may be communicatively coupled to the one or more tapes/disks 140and database 145.

In some implementations, a restoring/searching module 134 c may receivea restore/search request for a particular file(s), for example. Therestore/search request may include one or more search parameters, forexample, one or more file/directory names/identifiers offiles/directories to be restored/searched, user name/identifierassociated with a user who created the request and/or a user whosefile(s) are to be restored/searched, resource identifier, accesspermissions/security information, and/or other parameters. Based on therequest, restoring/searching module 134 c may mount a virtual catalogimage associated with a particular resource identified in the requestusing appropriate vendor specific technology. For example, if thevirtual catalog image is in VMDK format, appropriate VMware tools may beused to mount the virtual catalog image on the backup server, use nativefile system search capabilities, and so on.

In some implementations, when the virtual catalog image is mounted onthe backup server 130, the file system including the file/directoryhierarchy associated with the particular resource can be accessed on thebackup server 130. Various operations, for example, accessing,searching, restoring, and/or other operations may be performed based onand/or by the underlying file system. Because the virtual catalog imageis a complete file system image, the file system may perform searchoperations for a particular file/directory identified in for example,the restore request.

In some implementations, the restore request may also specify a userwhose files are to be restored. Accordingly, the underlying file systemmay perform search operations for a particular file/directory associatedwith the specific user. The underlying file system may control a user'saccess to the file system based on the access permissions contained inthe mounted catalog image. As such, an access control mechanism need notbe built into the backup system as the underlying file system is capableof performing access control operations.

In some implementations, the mounted virtual catalog image may besearched to identify the particular file in the file system orfile/directory hierarchy. In some implementations, once the file isidentified in the directory hierarchy, location of the identified filein the backup image of the items associated with the particular resourcemay be determined by restoring/searching module 134 c. The mountedvirtual catalog image may contain this location information. Forexample, the mounted virtual catalog image may include a tape identifierof the tape containing the backup image, a location of the tapecontaining the backup image, and location of the identified file in thetape. The identified file may be restored from the determined locationin the backup image. For example, instead of scanning the entire backupimage in the tape, a seek operation may be performed to the determinedlocation and the actual file data may be accessed/restored from thedetermined location.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary flowchart 200 depicting operations performed by abackup system, according to an aspect of the invention. The describedoperations may be accomplished using one or more of modules describedherein and in some implementations, various operations may be performedin different sequences. In other implementations, additional operationsmay be performed along with some or all of the operations shown in FIG.2. In yet other implementations, one or more operations may be performedsimultaneously. In yet other implementations, one or more of operationsmay not be performed. Accordingly, the operations described areexemplary in nature and, as such, should not be viewed as limiting.

In an operation 202, one or more records including actual data andmetadata associated with items of one or more file systems (associatedwith one or more managed resources 110 a-110 n) are received. In anoperation 204, a backup image of the actual data associated with theitems may be created and stored in tape(s)/disk(s)/cloud 140. A virtualcatalog image associated with the received metadata records may becreated and stored in a virtual file system image format, in operation204. In an operation 206, the virtual catalog image may be mounted onthe backup server.

In some implementations, a restore/search request may be received andthe virtual catalog image may be mounted based at least in part on therequest. For example, the request may include parameters, for example,managed resource identifiers identifying managed resources from whichfiles are to be restored, users whose files are to be restored,file/directory names/identifiers of files to be restored, accesspermissions, and/or other parameters. Based on, for example, theresource identifiers in the restore request, a virtual catalog imagecreated for an identified managed resource may be mounted on the backupserver. One skilled in the art may recognize that virtual catalog imageto be mounted may be determined based on other parameters solely or incombination with the resource identifiers.

In an operation 208, the mounted virtual catalog image may be searchedto identify one or more files in the file system. In someimplementations, a particular file/directory to be restored may beidentified in the restore request, and the mounted virtual catalog imagemay be searched to identify the particular file/directory in thefile/directory hierarchy. In an operation 210, the location of theidentified file/directory in the backup image may be determined. In anoperation 212, the identified file may be restored from the determinedlocation in the backup image.

In some implementations, operations 206-212 may be performed in responseto receipt of the restore/search request and/or for other reasons.

In some implementations, because the catalog file is stored in a virtualfile system image format, and may be part of a specific vendor'svirtualization platform, all high availability and error recoveryfeatures of the virtualization platform may be inherited. For exampletaking snapshots of these catalogs, if they are attached to a runningvirtual machine, then that virtual machine may be moved from onephysical server to another physical server and so on, in case ofresource crunch. As the virtual catalog image may be part of a virtualmachine, Spanned, Striped, or RAID volumes may be created to store theimage.

Implementations of the invention may be made in hardware, firmware,software, or various combinations thereof. The invention may also beimplemented as computer-readable instructions stored on a tangiblecomputer-readable storage medium which may be read and executed by oneor more processors. A computer-readable storage medium may includevarious mechanisms for storing information in a form readable by acomputing device. For example, a tangible computer-readable storagemedium may include optical storage media, flash memory devices, and/orother storage mediums. Further, firmware, software, routines, orinstructions may be described in the above disclosure in terms ofspecific exemplary aspects and implementations of the invention, andperforming certain actions. However, it will be apparent that suchdescriptions are merely for convenience, and that such actions may infact result from computing devices, processors, controllers, or otherdevices executing firmware, software, routines or instructions.

Other embodiments, uses and advantages of the invention will be apparentto those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification andpractice of the invention disclosed herein. The specification should beconsidered exemplary only, and the scope of the invention is accordinglyintended to be limited only by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for managing backupand restoration of items, the method executed by a processor configuredto perform a plurality of operations, the operations comprising:receiving, by a backup server, one or more records associated with itemsof a local file system of a managed resource, the one or more recordscomprising an actual data records portion and a metadata recordsportion; creating, by the backup server, a backup image associated withthe actual data records portion, wherein the backup image does notcomprise the metadata records portion; sending, by the backup server, toa remote server provided by a storage services provider, the createdbackup image; providing, by the backup server, to a virtual machinehosting server distinct from the remote server, the metadata recordsportion which allows the virtual machine hosting server to create avirtual catalog image comprising the metadata records portion, whereinthe virtual catalog image is in a virtual file system image format, andwherein the virtual catalog image does not comprise the actual datarecords portion; receiving, at the backup server, from the virtualmachine hosting server, the created virtual catalog image; receiving, atthe backup server, a restore request associated with the items, therestore request comprising a parameter; mounting, on the backup server,the received virtual catalog image based on the parameter of the restorerequest; and performing, by the backup server, a search operation on themounted virtual catalog image to identify one or more of the items to berestored.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein thevirtual file system image format comprises VMDK format or a VHD format.3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or morerecords are received from a backup agent running on the managedresource.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, whereincreating a virtual catalog image further comprises utilizing anapplication programming interface of virtualization platform vendor tocreate the virtual catalog image.
 5. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the parameter of the restore request comprises anidentifier of the managed resource from which the items are to berestored, and identifiers of the items that are to be restored, theoperations further comprising: in response to the restore request;mounting the received virtual catalog image associated with the managedresource identified in the restore request; performing the searchoperation on the mounted virtual catalog image to identify the itemsidentified in the restore request; determining a location of theidentified items in the backup image; and restoring, to the local filesystem of the managed resource, the identified items from the determinedlocation in the backup image.
 6. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise providing,on the virtual machine hosting server, a catalog agent that runs on avirtual machine of an operating system, and wherein creating a virtualcatalog image comprising the metadata records portion further comprisesthe catalog agent creating the virtual catalog image using interfacesnative to the operating system.
 7. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium having computer- readable instructions thereon which whenexecuted by a processor cause the processor to; receive, at a backupserver, one or more records associated with items of a local file systemof a managed resource, the one or more records comprising an actual datarecords portion and a metadata records portion; create, by the backupserver, a backup image associated with the actual data records portion,wherein the backup image does not comprise the metadata records portion;send, by the backup server to a remote server provided by a storageservices provider, the created backup image; provide, by the backupserver, to a virtual machine hosting server distinct from the remoteserver, the metadata records portion which allows the virtual machinehosting server to create a virtual catalog image comprising the metadatarecords portion, wherein the virtual catalog image is in a virtual filesystem image format, and wherein the virtual catalog image does notcomprise the actual data records portion; receive, by the backup server,from the virtual machine hosting server, the created virtual catalogimage; receive, by the backup server a restore request associated withthe items, the restore request comprising a parameter; mount, on thebackup server, the received virtual catalog image based on the parameterof the restore request; and perform, by the backup server, a searchoperation on the mounted virtual catalog image to identify one or moreof the items to be restored.
 8. The tangible computer-readable storagemedium of claim 7, wherein the virtual file system image formatcomprises VMDK format or a VHD format.
 9. The tangible computer-readablestorage medium of claim 7, wherein the one or more records are receivedfrom a backup agent running on the managed resource.
 10. The tangiblecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 7, the instructions furthercause the processor to: create the virtual catalog image by utilizing anapplication programming interface of virtualization platform vendor. 11.The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein theparameter of the restore request comprises an identifier of the managedresource from which the items are to be restored, and identifiers of theitems that are to be restored, and the instructions further cause theprocessor to: in response to the restore request: mount the receivedvirtual catalog image associated with the managed resource identified inthe restore request; perform the search operation on the mounted virtualcatalog image to identify the items identified in the restore request;determine a location of the identified items in the backup image; andrestore, to the local file system of the managed resource, theidentified items from the determined location in the backup image. 12.The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, theinstructions further cause the processor to provide, on the virtualmachine hosting server, a catalog agent that runs on a virtual machineof an operating system, and wherein creating a virtual catalog imagecomprising the metadata records portion further comprises the catalogagent creating the virtual catalog image using interfaces native to theoperating system.
 13. A computer-implemented system for managing backupand restore of items, the system comprising: a backup server including aprocessor, the processor configured to: receive one or more recordsassociated with items of a local file system of a managed resource, theone or more records comprising an actual data records portion and ametadata records portion; create a backup image associated with theactual data records portion, wherein the backup image does not comprisethe metadata records portion; send, to a remote server provided by astorage services provider, the created backup image; provide, to avirtual machine hosting server distinct from the remote server, themetadata records portion which allows the virtual machine hosting serverto create a virtual catalog image comprising the metadata recordsportion, wherein the virtual catalog image is in a virtual file systemimage format, and wherein the virtual catalog image does not comprisethe actual data records portion; receive, from the virtual machinehosting server, the created virtual catalog image; receive a restorerequest associated with the items, the restore request comprising aparameter; mount the received virtual catalog image based on theparameter of the restore request; and perform a search operation on themounted virtual catalog image to identify one or more of the items to berestored.
 14. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein thevirtual file system image format comprises VMDK format or a VHD format.15. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein the one or morerecords are received from a backup agent running on the managedresource.
 16. The computer-implemented system of claim 13, wherein theprocessor is further configured to: create the virtual catalog image byutilizing an application programming interface of virtualizationplatform vendor.
 17. The computer-implemented system of claim 13,wherein the parameter of the restore request comprises an identifier ofthe managed resource from which the items are to be restored, andidentifiers of the items that are to be restored, and the processor isfurther configured to: in response to the request: mount the receivedvirtual catalog image associated with the managed resource identified inthe restore request; perform the search operation on the mounted virtualcatalog image to identify the items identified in the restore request;determine a location of the identified items in the backup image; andrestore, to the local file system of the managed resource, theidentified items from the determined location in the backup image. 18.The computer-implemented system of claim 13, the processor being furtherconfigured to provide, on the virtual machine hosting server, a catalogagent that runs on a virtual machine of an operating system, and whereincreating a virtual catalog image comprising the metadata records portionfurther comprises the catalog agent creating the virtual catalog imageusing interfaces native to the operating system.
 19. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the backup image is in afile format of the file system associated with the managed resource andthe virtual catalog image is in a virtual file system image formatcorresponding to the virtual machine.
 20. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1, further comprising dividing the received one or morerecords into the actual data records portion and the metadata recordsportion.